Facebook Friday – What retailers can learn from how celebrities are using Facebook

Celebrity pages are amongst the most popular on Facebook. Names like Eminem, Will Smith, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have over nearly 150 million fans between them. For celebrities, Facebook and Social Media in general is a key part of their marketing activity, as it enables them interact with fans and promote themselves/their products. It can also serve to enhance their reputation, providing they have a number of fans/followers worth shouting about.

Many of the marketing techniques employed on celebrity Facebook pages can be used by retailers. Here are 3 examples of celebrities embracing the power of Facebook.

RihannaLikes: Over 44,000,000Page:http://www.facebook.com/rihannaRihanna’s Facebook page features a plethora of content for users to engage with. In addition to the sort of content you would expect to find such as “Events”, “Photos” and “Discussions” there are tabs dedicated to songs, concert tickets, merchandise and music video’s. There‘s also a tab encouraging fans to join the “Rihanna Navy VIP List”, which is essentially a newsletter sign up. This is a great way to gather data and something a retailer could easily incorporate into their Facebook page. Another great feature on Rihanna’s Facebook page is the poll tab, where the singer asks her fans to vote on songs she should perform at forthcoming gigs. This feature would be really useful for a retailer as they could use it when making decisions related to products and branding. It’s a great way to encourage user participation and solicit feedback.

Christiano RonaldoLikes: 33,000,000Page:http://www.facebook.com/CristianoIt’s clear that Christiano Ronaldo’s Facebook page is part of a wider social media strategy as it contains links to a You Tube channel, Twitter stream, and discussion board. There’s also a tab dedicated to the “CR Store”, where fans can “like” or buy the latest CR branded Nike apparel. This tab is designed to drive traffic to the CR Store on the Nike ecommerce website as all the products displayed in this tab link directly to it. It’s a good strategy and one that should be employed by every retailer using Facebook as a way to drive traffic to their ecommerce site.

Christiano’s most recent on-pitch exploits are featured in the form of photo albums dedicated to specific matches he’s played in. This is another good strategy as it’s engaging for users and gives them a reason to revisit the page.

Barrack ObamaLikes: Over 22,500,000Page:http://www.facebook.com/barackobamaThe Facebook page of the “leader of the free world” features videos, photos and a “store” tab that links directly to the 2012 campaign merchandise shop. The “donate” tab enables users to make a campaign donation via credit or debit card and there’s an “are you in?” tab which uses the Facebook connect API to gather data from users wishing to follow the 2012 campaign trail. The card payment facility in the “donate” tab and the Facebook connect API in “are you in?” tab could both be used in some way shape or form on a retailers Facebook page.

Overall there are many features on celebrity Facebook pages which can be applied to retailers Facebook pages:

Rihanna’s Facebook page includes a newsletter sign up, which is a great way to gather data from fans.

Rihanna’s Facebook page also includes a polling facility, which is a great way to solicit feedback from fans.

Christiano Ronaldo’s Facebook page is a great example of how to incorporate elements of a wider social media strategy as it features his You Tube Channel and Twitter Stream.

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